2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
- Budapest, Hungary
- LCM (50m)
- Full Competition Schedule
- Meet Info
- Psych Sheets
- Omega Results
- Pick ’em Contest
- Event-by-Event Previews
The 16th and final session of swimming from Budapest is upon us, with eight more finals still to go.
The women’s 50 breast will lead off, as Lilly King and Yuliya Efimova go head-to-head one more time. The score is currently 1-1, and both looked strong in the semis. The 29.48 world record could very well go.
Katie Meili is the front-runner for the third medal, but world record holder Ruta Meilutyte and defending champion Jennie Johansson cannot be counted out.
Next is the men’s 400 IM, where Chase Kalisz has to be the favorite after winning the 200 and cruising to the top seed of 4:09.79 this morning. Max Litchfield broke his British record this morning in 4:10.5, two-time defending champ Daiya Seto will be in lane 6, and Kosuke Hagino will be all the way out in lane 1, still looking for his first World Championship medal in this event.
Hungarian David Verraszto could also give the crowd something to cheer about after looking solid in prelims, qualifying 3rd in 4:11.89.
Camille Lacourt will go for the three-peat in the men’s 50 back in his last ever competitive race. He led the semis in 24.30 and will be the favorite to do so. Junya Koga, Xu Jiayu, Matt Grevers and Justin Ress will also be in the mix for the medals.
Sarah Sjostrom will look for another world record, but more importantly the gold medal in the women’s 50 free. She broke it yesterday in 23.67, and has a clear margin to the next best competitors.
If she slips up Pernille Blume may be the one to steal it from her, as the Olympic champ lowered her PB to 24.05 in the semis. Simone Manuel, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and defending champ Bronte Campbell will also be in the fight.
The home crowd will go wild for their last legitimate medal shot, as Katinka Hosszu goes for her third 400 IM title in a row and fourth overall. She looked the best this morning qualifying 1st in 4:33.90, and Mireia Belmonte also looked good despite her busy schedule here, 2nd in 4:35.29.
The rest of the field is bunched up, within a second of each other, and Japan’s Yui Ohashi needs to be watched out for from lane 1, as she also won the 200 IM silver from an outside lane.
The last individual event will be the men’s 1500, as Gregorio Paltrinieri looks for the repeat. His biggest challenge will come from Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk, who dropped over six seconds off in the heats to qualify 1st in 14:44.11.
Wojciech Wojdak, Gabriele Detti and Mack Horton are among the other names in the final, but based on the morning times the battle for gold shapes up to come from the defending champion and the 20-year-old Ukrainian.
Next we’ll have the medley relays, where the U.S. will be favored in both after switching in entirely different lineups from the prelims.
The women will be in lane 4, with the biggest threats China in 5, Australia in 2, Canada in 3, and potentially Sweden in 1 if they use Sarah Sjostrom.
The men sizzled to a blistering 3:29.66 this morning, but were almost DQed by Townley Haas. They’re all good though, and will have a stacked lineup in the final, including Caeleb Dressel going for his 7th gold medal of the meet.
Great Britain could potentially challenge with Adam Peaty on breast, but the deficit on backstroke is expected to be too much of a gap for them to overcome in the end. The Japanese will have lane 5, and Russia in 3 while GBR takes 6.
Lineups will be announced closer to the session.
I think Beisel should at least get a mention in this should took along time of aftet the Olympics and has been 432 or faster since 15. She may pull iht2 a 4:33 or something
W400IM: Far more open race than we may’ve thought going in with any number of scenarios possible. Whilst Hosszu has to be favourite; this one could go any number of ways
M400IM: Hard to go past Kalisz but were both Hagino & Seto foxing this morning or are they out of gas ? Litchfield has to be seen as a medal chance but not for the main one. Can hometown crowd be a factor for Verraszto ?
M4XMED: USA have to break to lose this … end of story. Sadly for GBR, their Peaty weapon will be defused bridging the gap created on back and USA has the edge on the final 2 legs. JAP or RUS for final spot… Read more »
I would bet jpn being the weakest of the 3Rd tier on finals
Am tending to think that way but its not a slam dunk in RUS’ favour either.
If anybody spoils the US/GB 1-2, it’ll be Russia. Only concern is their fly.
I want to see Rylov’s lead-off on backstroke. Weirdly he swam only the 200 back this week.
But when you have a PB of 24.52 in the 50 back and 1.53.61 in the 200 back then you must be able to swim a very fast 100. HIs best time is 52.74. He’s fresh. If swimming is logical then he should be able to go much faster than that.
Don’t forget China on 1 and Brazil on 2. Line ups are available now